Editorial: Struggling in Suburbia

Sunday

Mar 16, 2014 at 5:30 AMMar 26, 2014 at 5:08 PM

This week, we begin the three-week series called Struggling in Suburbia. It’s a look at the circumstances of people within our communities who exist on limited income; their impact upon municipal services, such as schools; and some ways in which these circumstances might be mitigated, including affordable housing.The dilemma of low-income residents is laid out in the book "Confronting Poverty in Suburban America." Published in 2013 by the non-profit public policy think tank the Brookings Institution, its authors spent more than 10 years researching poverty.Here’s what Brookings and authors Elizabeth Kneebone and Alan Berube had to say about their research: "…In 2006 we wrote a Brookings report about poverty trends in cities and metropolitan areas in the 2000s. Buried within our analysis was a trend that struck us as noteworthy: By our calculations, there now seemed to be more poor people in metro areas living outside of big cities than within them. We spoke with a lot of people about the report, and they had trouble wrapping their heads around that statistic. Admittedly, we did, too."In our own newsroom, we looked at U.S. Census numbers to find out how many people live in poverty in Lexington. Our first reaction: Relief and pride that poverty is not a problem here. In a community of just over 31,100 residents (according to 2010 census numbers), 4 percent was living at or below the poverty level in the years 2008-2012, as defined by the federal standard. That sounds pretty good, right?But there was more data, and it chipped away at our smug attitude. Try this as a conversation starter at your next social gathering: "There are only 1,237 people living at or below the poverty line in Lexington." That’s how many people 4 percent are. Does a number in the hundreds make you at least a little uncomfortable?Then the numbers trail led us to the realization that the problem is even greater than that modest 4 percent first led us to believe. The federal definition of poverty is a family of four earning $23,850 or less a year. That should take your breath away. Perhaps one person could make it in Lexington on that income. But four? What about a family of four earning half again that amount -- $35,775? Those people must live here, too, unaccounted for by the federal definition, but surely struggling.How could this happen here? You probably know the answers: Job loss, followed by months to years of unemployment; the divorce or death of a spouse; debilitating health problems that make employment sporadic or impossible. It’s all an abstraction, until it’s not. Until it happens to you, or your adult child.There are, literally, hundreds of people in Lexington who are struggling. Some fall within the official definition of poverty. Others do not. But they are here, hiding in plain sight. They’re not going to announce themselves to you.Authors Elizabeth Kneebone and Alan Berube offer some anti-poverty strategies in their book. They – and we – know that there is not a single solution to the problems of poverty or almost-poverty. We wish we could say, "Vote for this!" and have the problem end.Our objective for these next three weeks is to raise awareness. We hope you will see the problem as a relevant one, as we now do. We also hope that it motivates us – as individuals and as a community – to be more open to actions that can make a difference, even when it impacts us in our backyard. In a manner of speaking, the problem already is in our backyard. Solutions may be as well.